Observation: Salt Lake

Poor Snowpack Structure

I think the observations from Greg Gagne and Mark White cover the potential for wind slabs to slide on the weak layer/bed combo of the light density snow on top of various crusts. I poked a bit more on the E and SE aspects, which I found to be weaker than I thought they would be (havn't skied much lately...). Basic structure was the 5-6" of low density on top of sun crusts of varying thickness depending upon how much southerly exposure they had. Underneath the crust was 1-2 inches of very weak, well developed, 2mm facets. Not much of a slab on top today, but that is about to change. I think this structure is a bit poorer than some of the north faces, which have abundant weak snow, but I think the crusts on E and SE may allow the slab to build a bit more and propagate a bit better (thicker crusts on S facing may bridge this weakness better than the thinner crusts on E and SE). Depending on snow amounts, may only get enough weight to create problems in the wind affected areas (which could load quickly during the first part of the storm tomorrow). Short story, agree that today was low-moderate...tomorrow probably considerable-high and would not go back to anything we skied today.